Premiership preview, table prediction: 18. Aston Villa

Aston Villa

Nickname: The Villans

Ground: Villa Park

Capacity: 42640

Manager: Alex McLeish

Squad:

·         Goalkeepers 1 Shay Given 22 Brad Guzan 24 Elliott Parish 33 Andy Marshall Benjamin Siegrist ·         Defenders 2 Luke Young 3 Stephen Warnock 5 Richard Dunne 21 Ciaran Clark 23 Habib Beye 24 Carlos Cuellar 29 James Collins 30 Eric Lichaj 32 Nathan Baker 34 Shane Lowry

·         Midfielders 7 Stephen Ireland 10 Charles N'Zogbia 12 Marc Albrighton 16 Fabian Delph 17 Jean Makoun 19 Stiliyan Petrov 25 Barry Bannan 28 Jonathan Hogg 31 Chris Herd 35 Daniel Johnson 38 Gary Gardner

·         Forwards 9 Darren Bent 11 Gabriel Agbonlahor 18 Emile Heskey 26 Andreas Weimann 26 Nathan Delfouneso

A lot of things have gone wrong for Aston Villa after Martin O’Neil left them about a year ago. After appointing Gérard Houllier, it went terribly wrong. Before he left the club he managed to argue with most of the players and even got the fans screaming for the sack after some weeks. So I’m sure most of the fans were happy to see him sign off due to his health, or at least so he claimed. But from a fans point of view it got worse when the club decided to appoint rival club Birmingham manager Alex McLeish. So I bet the fans will be critical at everything he does, and if the results is not good from the start he won’t be sitting in the manager chair for long. And to add things to all the negative stuff that have been going on in the club for a year or so, they lose Downing to Liverpool and Young to Manchester United. And let both John Carew and Nigel Reo-Coker go on free transfer.  So I think Alex McLeish and Aston Villa are in for one tough and disappointing season which I believe could end in relegation.

Pre-Season Fixtures/Results

July 21 vs Walsall 3-1 – Bent (2), Heskey

July 27 vs Blackburn Rovers 1-0 – Bent

July 31 vs Chelsea 0-2 August 3rd vs Derby County 0-2

August 6th vs Sporting Braga 1-1 N’Zogbia

The pre-season results have been ok, but not impressive and Villa won’t be boosting with confidence after all the negative talk the last year.

Players in

07/11 Shay Given GK  

07/11 Brad Guzan GK  

07/11 Shane Lowry DF  

07/11 Isaiah Osbourne MF  

07/11 Andreas Weimann FW  

Players out

07/11 Stewart Downing MF  

06/11 Michael Bradley MF  

06/11 Brad Friedel GK  

06/11 Nigel Reo-Coker MF  

06/11 Kyle Walker DF  

06/11 Ashley Young MF  

Alex McLeish have not done much on the transfer side yet, and I think he wants and need to strengthen and put his touch on the Villa side if he is to get the team into a good league position this year. On the positive side I would say Villa have a better goalkeeper this season after signing Shay Given from Manchester City to replace Brad Friedel.

Most likely starting lineup for Aston Villa next weekend:

                                                 Shay Given

Luke Young          James Collins       Richard Dunne    Stephen Warnock

    Stiliyan Petrov           Stephen Ireland

 Marc Albrighton                                                            Charles N'Zogbia

                            Gabriel Agbonlahor       Darren Bent

Aston Villa is looking poor defensively and looking at the most likely starting back-line I think Shay Given will get his hands full. Looking forward they are in need of Bent and new signing N’Zogbia to deliver the goods if they are to get result. I think Alex McLeish is a good manager and I could be wrong with my prediction, but I’m 100% sure that he won’t get much backing from the fans if the results are not good from the start, which could make it one hell of a struggle to get results. I predict Aston Villa going down, and I also bet Alex McLeish might be the first manager to be sacked this season.